Monday, June 28, 2010

Ch. 3 - Friday Morning

Now, most people in my line of work are used to getting up early. But, that’s during the school year. And, it’s usually not at 4:00am. A “get-to-know-each-other” meeting was announced Thursday afternoon, so I set my alarm to have a date with Skype early the next day.

The meeting mostly consisted of the previous director (“Nick”, a jovial-sounding gent from England) providing background information and fielding questions from me, the incoming director, and two other teachers. It was only slightly surreal, and it might have seemed normal and professional if I weren’t a bit sleep-deprived. Nick did a good job giving us a feel for the pace of daily life, general obligations, anecdotes, and other handy bits of information. We ended a little over an hour later, so I decided a bit more shuteye was in order.

After putting the finishing touches on my luggage—read: once I took my clothes out of the dryer, I began packing—it was make some last minute purchases. The aforementioned Nick hipped us to beware of Lignano’s particularly ravenous brood of mosquitoes. A bit of Off here, some Stride gum there, and I was relatively set to go; go visit my parents, that is.

My nieces Lily and Naomi are staying with my folks through the 4th of July, so I was able to hang out with them all for a bit before heading to Reagan National Airport. My dad was kind enough to chauffer me to the airport while my mom stayed home to wrangle the little ones.

I’ll spare you the airport-y details, except to say that I enjoyed relatively smooth baggage and security check-in procedures. I now felt that I was officially on my way.